AI Practice BFM Functionality

[Brass2-1]

I believe this would be a desired and enjoyable feature across all tactical fixed-wing modules. I see it being valuable for BFM and DACT in particular, but practice intercepts would be excellent as well. 
 

I and many others spend a good portion of our DCS hours flying “training” and Red Flag type scenarios on NTTR, but to a large degree the immersion/realism is broken by actually destroying airborne targets. While air-to-air combat is incredibly rare in the last few decades, training occurs daily in every Air Force in the world and I would love better tools to simulate this. 
 

I would suggest either or both of two functions;

• Inter-flight BFM practice via radio call to wingman. “Two, push to butterfly set”. “Fight’s on!”, wingman turns in and ‘engages’ without expending ordnance. An amazing feature would be “Fox 2” or “GUNS GUNS” calls when in engagement parameters, with the player having hot keys for the same. 
   
• ‘Perform Command’ option for AI aircraft/flights, with similar functionality as described above. 

[FlankerKiller]

Definitely a plus one on this. 

[upyr1]

a training checkbox would be awesome 

[FlankerKiller]

I can't +1 this enough. I spend a considerable amount of time just practicing on targets. At this point I'm mostly just honing my skills until the dynamic campaign.  And I really like to focus on the flying aspect. Good takeoff, good landings, good overhead breaks. And it would be freeking sweet to have this to get some BFM practice in while also burning down some extra fuel. Hell I already kind of fake it by telling 2 the go close trail, and getting on his six. Be they don't fight quite as hard as the new Ai. This would also be freaking sweet for mission making. It's common for advisories to do "mock dogfights". You could set Red and Blue to Return Fire, and then have them do a Practice BFM, for some Topgun opening seance action. Also with a random trigger you could never know if they would actually go hot. So tones of uses. I'm sure it wouldn't be super easy to code. But we have a training map, and if feels weird killing advisory jets. 

 

P.S. it would be awesome to have Jester do the "regret to inform you" line randomly when you loose. 

Edited April 23, 2022 by FlankerKiller

[BomberEW]

Yes! This would make training flights more realistic and you can accomplish objectives like overheads and patterns afterwards. This would be a fantastic addition. I also think DCS should add practice AR. An ability to connect without actually taking on fuel so you could practice. 

[Mars Exulte]

One way I have done this in the past is simply removing their ammo, although it's been a while. If given aggressive RoEs or told to respond to attacks, they'll maneuver despite having no actual weaponry. For that matter, even unarmed aircraft like drones will maneuver to evade/attack if given appropriate RoEs, at least to an extent.

 

Tbf, they have changed the AI a lot over the last couple years, so I don't know how applicable this still is, but in general instead of looking to make the AI ''contextually smarter'', look for loopholes to exploit how stupid it is (ie dogfighting with you despite not having weapons).

[FalcoGer]

Why? Just put a red jet in and fight it properly. Once they're blown up you just restart the mission, or set both jets to invulnerable. Or better yet, get a friend (I don't know what that is, but I've heard that 'friend' stuff is really useful) and do it with them.

Edited April 25, 2022 by FalcoGer